Linking Emissions Trading Schemes Synthesis Report

The report assesses the potential for linking regional and national emissions trading systems (ETS) to create a broader carbon market. It concludes that while an OECD-wide company-level market by 2015 is highly ambitious, linking serves as a critical bottom-up fallback option to top-down international regimes. The study identifies significant barriers to full bilateral linking, including divergent monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) provisions, differing offset eligibility, and a lack of consensus on carbon price levels. However, it suggests that unilateral links to international offset mechanisms and indirect links via credits are more likely in the short term.

• Establishing an OECD-wide company-level carbon market by 2015 is considered a highly ambitious goal; it is more probable that 2015 will mark the start of a period for creating the first links between different OECD countries' trading systems.
• Full bilateral linking is not a short-term priority for most assessed schemes because the benefits are weighed against the loss of control over domestic CO2 price levels. Other significant barriers include intensity targets and offset provisions, such as the eligibility of offsets.
• Linking provides a bottom-up alternative to top-down international regimes when global climate negotiations face diplomatic stalemate, though it cannot negotiate a global burden-sharing regime or achieve instantaneous global coverage unless major emitters like the US, EU, China, and Russia form a joint market outside the UNFCCC.
• While full bilateral links are unlikely soon, most systems are expected to establish unilateral links to international offset mechanisms, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Indirect links via the acceptance of CDM or other credits may lead to the convergence of allowance prices.

APA

Tuerk, A., Sterk, W., Haites, E., Mehling, M., Flachsland, C., Kimura, H., Betz, R., & Jotzo, F. (2009). Linking Emissions Trading Schemes Synthesis Report. Climate Strategies. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/executive-summary-linking-final-may-09.pdf

Chicago

Tuerk, Andreas, Wolfgang Sterk, Erik Haites, Michael Mehling, Christian Flachsland, Hitomi Kimura, Regina Betz, and Frank Jotzo. Linking Emissions Trading Schemes Synthesis Report. Climate Strategies, 2009. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/executive-summary-linking-final-may-09.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{tuerk2009linking, author = {Tuerk, Andreas and Sterk, Wolfgang and Haites, Erik and Mehling, Michael and Flachsland, Christian and Kimura, Hitomi and Betz, Regina and Jotzo, Frank}, title = {{Linking Emissions Trading Schemes Synthesis Report}}, institution = {Climate Strategies}, year = {2009}, month = may, url = {https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/executive-summary-linking-final-may-09.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }